Amor Lupus
by mondas42
Summary: When the Doctor finds a drifting Enterprise E, powerless and helpless; he off course stops to help. However what and whom he finds on board will have lasting effects on him. It seems that the impossible may just be possible.
1. Chapter 1

**Amor Lupus**

Chapter One

August 2345 AD - Pete's World

The ground shook with a deep rumble as yet another explosion rocked the damaged planet. Fires had taken hold all over the ruins of the once great city of London filling the air with a dense acrid smoke. Hardly anything was left standing as most of the buildings were either flattened or left in ruins. The city was a near ghost town, nothing much had lived in the once metropolis for years. In fact, nothing much had lived on the island that was once known as Great Britain for many a year. Just a few scattered nomadic pockets of people were left, trying to find enough food to live off and to avoid the raiding parties that occasionally arrived for some sport. Most of the people had either fled for the continent, were long since dead or worse; been taken by THEM.

It was to the north of the once great city that a figure walked. Unlike any of the cowering wrecks that it occasionally encountered, this figure walked with confidence; if not with some degree of cunning and trepidation about what it would find - or what would find it. The figure was not tall, barely taller than five and half feet, but the figure walked with an air of confidence that made it seem much taller. Dressed in sturdy black combat boots, with black military fatigues, the ensemble was finished off with a long black leather coat that almost reached the ground. Over its shoulder, on a nylon strap was a large weapon of some kind; and strapped to the left thigh was a long wicked looking knife. The figure walked quickly, a destination clearly in mind and paid little heed to the muffled cries of the dying. Suddenly there was a shout from behind the figure.

"Stop Human! Stop and face you masters!" came the guttural sound of the Sycorax warrior that had appeared. The figure stopped and slowly began to turn.

"Drop the weapon human and bow before me!" the tall creature grated in glee, the anticipation of the kill evident in its tone.

The figure had fully turned, but kept its head bowed, its face hidden in the shadows. What was visible was a curtain of dirty bleached blonde hair. The woman, for it was now evident that figure was a woman; a slim beautiful well figured woman, smiled a smile that contained no happiness in it. She had a lithe figure, lithe but strong, evident by the muscles showing through the fatigues she was wearing. Her whisky coloured eyes were staring at the skull helmeted creature in front of her with hatred. Her wide expressive mouth, that when she had smiled with genuine happiness would light up her face, was pinched with suppressed rage. She looked about twenty-five years of age but there was something about her that seemed older; the way she held herself, the weariness of her eyes that bellied an age that was almost impossible to comprehend.

"Oh I don't think so!" she whispered, her voice however carrying across the intervening space well enough for the creature to hear the words.

"Drop the weapon NOW human scum!" the Sycorax warrior repeated, its blaster trained on her. The woman slowly began to remove the heavy gun from her shoulder, her eyes on the warrior all the time. Seeing that she was complying the warrior began to relax. He was so used to the humans obeying that the thought of them fighting back after so many years of subjugation had slowed his reflexes. It was this that was his undoing; as the heavy weapon was flung to the ground with a loud thump, his eyes were drawn to the sight of the weapon and he totally missed the woman snatch the knife from its holster and with a speed and strength that was impossible for a human, she threw it with deadly accuracy at the warrior. With a sickening crunch the knife embedded itself deeply into the warrior's skull. The creature blinked twice in amazement and without any grace whatsoever it slowly collapsed to the earth; dead before it hit the ground.

Rose Marion Tyler sighed to herself; another life taken despite her promise she made centuries ago to the one and only man she had ever truly loved. She strode across the ground to the fallen Sycorax and quickly retrieved and cleaned her knife. She would have to move quickly now, more of the warriors would soon be here. All Sycorax warriors carried a life sensor on them; if and these days it was a 'if', one of their kind was killed, then central command would be notified and more warriors swiftly sent to suppress the human rebels. It had been many years since such a sensor had been activated in any great numbers; but in the early years of the invasion such attacks were common place. Rose herself had caused untold hundreds of such activations, but now even she had not killed a warrior for many months. The reason being was that there was nearly nothing left to fight for. The world was nearly dead, most of the population either dead on slaves on other worlds. The remaining humans were scattered across the globe in small frightened groups. In the early days of the occupation a few ships escaped the massacre, but no word had been heard of their whereabouts or status. With a glance at the body in front of her, she walked back to her dropped weapon and flicked a switch on the casing. With a practised aim she pointed the weapon to the creature and fired at the dead Sycorax. With a glow the body vanished, leaving a scorched outline on the ground. It was best to incinerate the dead; it sometimes slowed down the response from the rest.

Rose looked around quickly and set off for her destination, this time at a slow run, keeping to the shadows and using any cover she could find. After about three miles of jogging she found herself at the remains of what was once a set of large imposing metal gates. Now they were both hanging on their hinges and rusted. Rose gently ran her hand over one of them, the touch bringing back memories of happier times. This was the Tyler family estate; or what was left of it. She jogged up the drive to what was once the large imposing house; now however nothing more than a pile of discarded bricks and rubble. The once beautiful gardens were overrun jungles, and the large lake that she once swam in with Tony was now stagnant and green. However, despite the tears that were threatening to fall she steeled herself and walked quickly to the back of the remains of the house; to a small clearing in the jungle that covered the rear of the plot. As she entered the clearing she knelt down to something buried in the ground. With a groan of rusted metal, she opened a small metal cover on the ground, and reached into her pockets. Pulling out a small power source she quickly attached it the panel now exposed. With a beep, the panel lit up in the dying light of the day and Rose entered a long series of the numbers and letters. Once done, she pressed a final button and stood to watch the area in front of her shimmer and suddenly there appeared a walled area with a single metal gate in the centre. As she approached a red light scanned her and with a click the gate opened and she entered the area behind the gate. She was in a walled garden, the grass neat and with late summer flowers still blooming in the borders. The automated systems she had installed years ago still functioning to maintain the garden. In the centre of the grass stood four grave stones, each clean from moss and with the engraving still gleaming in the light.

Now with the tears flowing un-hindered she approached the first two of the graves.

"Mum, Dad it's me." she whispered, "I've come home for the end."

She placed her hand first on the grave of her mother, Jacqueline Andrea Suzette Tyler or Jackie as she was known before moving to the grave of her father. Both graves as well as that of her baby brother were empty. They were all killed one night not long after she and John married in a horrible zeppelin accident. The airship had collided with one of the few primitive aircraft that Pete's world possessed and both had been destroyed. The zeppelin landed on a petroleum factory and the resultant explosion had destroyed the zeppelin and the bodies within it completely. There had been nothing left to bury, so Rose and John had buried coffins containing items that meant so much to her family.

"I'm sorry Mum, Dad; I tried but in the end there were just too many of them. Dad I've instructed the last few Torchwood agents to enact the final sanction. I received word that two of the agents had reached their goal, only one left now and it won't be long now. Maybe this time I will finally be able to die and see you all again." she whispered the last part.

"Know that I love you both and I always will." She uttered before moving on.

As she walked slowly to the last of the four graves, she passed the one of her beloved baby brother, who had died so young, a life only just starting cut cruelly short. She fondly caressed the cold marble of the stone, but by now her eyes were fixated on the last one. She walked to the front of the stone and knelt sobbing on the ground. This was HIS grave, the grave of the only man she had ever truly loved; well one of them - there was always the other one in the other universe. She traced the letters with a finger as she once more read the words she knew so well.

 _ **"Here lies John Noble-Smith, born out of fire and taken too soon - Fly amongst the stars my lonely god**_ "

Rose had realised very early on that she was changed by the events on the Game Station. At first it had seemed subtle, a slowing of ageing, an increase in telepathy and she suddenly found complex theories and problems easy. She could learn more quickly, things that would baffle all except HIM were suddenly within her grasp. Off course the Doctor, or John as he liked to be called had run tests, a battery of tests, but nothing other than some minor changes to her DNA had been found.

Then about a year after they had both found themselves on that beach in Norway, everything changed for them. Rose died! Well she was killed in the line of duty by an angry and confused Judoon who had been injured when his ship had crashed. Rose, or Commander Tyler as she was also known then had been dispatched along with her team to intercept the alien. Only to find the intergalactic policeman was more confused than first thought. He had suffered a head injury, one that would have killed any other creature than a Judoon. But with his thick armour and the very tough skin of his head, he was only concussed and disorientated. He thought the Torchwood party were attacking him so he responded in the only way a Judoon could. He started shooting. Most of Rose's team managed to find cover, but Rose lead from the front and was too close to the injured creature as he opened fire. Despite her quickened reflexes she was hit point-blank in the chest. After a brief battle by the shocked remaining members of her team the Judoon was finally stunned and Rose airlifted to Torchwood base for medical treatment. She was immediately rushed to theatre but despite the best efforts of the surgical team there was nothing they could do and a few hours later she died surrounded by her grieving friends and John's hand in hers.

That would of course have normally been that, but minutes after she was pronounced dead, her body began to glow with the familiar golden light that John had seen coming from her all those years ago when he was surrounded by Daleks on the Game Station. With a sudden cry and pained gasp she sat up, her wounds healed and her body irrevocably changed. Despite everyone's relief and happiness, there was worry about how such a miraculous feat had been accomplished. At first everyone thought that it was a one off, but after she died for a further three times people close to her came to the same conclusion. John conducted another battery of tests and the results were incontavertable; Rose Tyler was seemingly immortal, not only that but she was also genetically incompatible with her beloved half Time Lord. Despite their best efforts, no children were ever conceived. The small team at Torchwood that knew about Rose's immortality were all sworn to secrecy and any reference of her was purged from all records and computer files. Despite her father once been the director and herself been a high ranking commander they were worried about people using Rose's powers for nefarious means.

The couple, despite the lack of children tried to make the best of the situation, but the 'Forever' they thought they had was now mismatched. John found it hard to find the shoe was now firmly on the other foot, and he was the one that would wither and fade leaving Rose to live on, perpetually young. But they made the most of it and life continued as best as it could. Both he and Rose were happy and very much in love and they soon married. However even this happiness was cut cruelly short, as less than ten years after been stranded in Pete's world, Rose found herself alone once more. It seemed that despite everything, John was too human; too human for the Gallifreyan half of himself. It started as a small lump he found in his abdomen, but within months he was riddled with cancers and tumours. Rose and the doctors at Torchwood tried everything they could think off but despite all their efforts, John passed away in his sleep, days after their eighth wedding anniversary. Since that day Rose had been alone, there was never anyone else that came close to her Doctor, and so the centuries pass, year by lonely year until the Sycorax came.

The first encounter with the Sycorax was nearly eighty years ago, and passed in a similar vein to the one Rose had encountered in her home universe. However, this time Rose played the part that the Doctor had once played. She thwarted the invasion and saved all the people stood on the buildings with the push of that great big red button. However, Rose made a fatal error. Off course at the time she didn't view it as an error, but an error it turned out to be. She showed them mercy; she didn't act like Harriet Jones had done all those years ago in another Universe, and instead of destroying the single invading ship, she let it depart their space in peace. This was a mistake as within twenty years they were back and not a single ship this time, but a massive armada of ships. Earth was apparently rich in resources and humans made such good slaves. Within a decade all resistance was almost crushed and the human race found itself on the brink of extinction. Rose had tried to stop them but there were just too many and after consultations with the few remaining leaders a final plan was put into action.

"John, my dear darling John, it's over my love. I've failed my love...I tried so hard but despite everything I've failed. Everything is gone, nearly everyone is dead and within minutes the last of the Osterhagen keys will be activated. I pray that we will be together, my love, My Doctor!" she wept and she knelt on the cold earth. She stayed there crying for minutes when suddenly she heard a cry from behind her as a small group of Sycorax finally caught up with her. The battle wearied warrior slowly rose to face them, but as she did so a bleep could be heard from her wrist communicator. This was it, the final agent was in place and awaiting her final order.

She raised her face to look at the Sycorax troop leader stood in front of her, its weapon raised and its face smiling in cruelty.

"Today you will die human scum!" it grated and he moved to press the trigger on its weapon.

Commander in Chief of all Earth Torchwood forces, Rose Marion Tyler, grinned and pressed the red button on her communicator, signalling the end of all things.

"Sorry but not today boys, today the human race says 'Fuck You!" she snarled. With an enormous sound, like all the thunder storms that have ever been all occurring at the same time, the earth beneath their feet buckled, throwing everyone to the ground. With cries of alarm the Sycorax fled leaving Rose to crawl to the grave of her husband where she lay on top of the earth and closed her eyes.

"I love you Doctor, I always will!" she cried as the ground beneath her suddenly vaporised, taking her and everything around her. Rose welcomed the blackness that she suddenly encountered.

Deep in space the Sycorax command ship monitored the world below it in horror as the crust of the planet began to glow a deep red. With alarms and klaxons blaring on the ship it tried to break high orbit and flee; but before it had chance to do so the Earth exploded in a fiery ball of plasma, obliterating the hundreds of ships in low orbit within an instant and finally destroying the command ship seconds later. It seemed that the human race had had the final word, and that word was "No More!"

After days the force of the explosion slowly waned, and amongst the now massive meteoroids that once made up the planet spinning into deep space, a golden light of glowing particles could be seen. These slowly grew closer together and began to coalesce into a vaguely humanoid shape. This shape began to writhe in apparent agony until the glow subsided leaving the shape of a naked blonde haired beautiful woman, screaming silently in the vacuum of space. The blood vessels began to pop on the surface of her skin as her blood boiled, until mercifully the absolute cold of space froze the body. Her mouth in a rictus grin of absolute agony, her eyes blooded and wide; the terror of her situation evident on her beautiful face. Silently the living corpse span further and further into deep space for eons until suddenly and unexpectedly a mile-wide rip opened in space. The crack in space and time glowed with an eerie white light. The floating body was pulled into the crack with a silent pop and was gone. The rip after a few minutes suddenly sealed shut and Rose Tyler finally left the universe she had been trapped in for centuries.

 **AN - This is a new story for me, I hope you like it. Please let me know if its worth continuing.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

2375 AD - Unknown Universe

In the strange multi-coloured corridor of subspace, a large starship travelled at near impossible speeds. This Starship was a sleek design, with a large circular primary hull that was sat upon a longer cylindrical secondary hull. Connected to the secondary hull were two long warp nacelles, that glowed with a powerful blue glow as the starship's engines powered the ship though the neverworld. Written on the circular primary hull in large illuminated writing were the letters NCC 1701E.

Sat in the command chair on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise, Captain Jean-Luc Picard watched his crew going about their business as the Enterprise flew at warp five to its next destination. They had recently left the Ba'ku planet and were en-route to Risa for some well-earned shore leave. The crew were still feeling the lingering effects of the radiation emitted from the strange planet's rings, but they were slowly diminishing. Sadly, for one of his crew, the loss of the effects was felt more keenly than most. His chief engineer was currently in the medical bay having his cybernetic eye implants re-attached. Geordi was trying to be upbeat about the downward turn in his fortunes, but Jean-Luc could tell he was disappointed that the effects hadn't been permanent. However, for some the effects had been more positive. His second in command, Commander Will Riker and his ships counsellor, Deanna Troi had rekindled their relationship after many years apart. They seemed both very happy, but were trying to remain professional and keep their rapidly blooming romance limited to crew quarters. As to himself? Well he felt the loss of the Ba'ku woman Anij more keenly that he first thought he would. With a mental sigh he shook himself out of his reflections on the enigmatic woman and refocused on the world around him. As he shifted in his chair, he couldn't however avoid the involuntary wince as he back protested to the movement.

"Something wrong Captain?" Will Riker quietly asked from the chair to his right, a smile playing around his face.

Jean-Luc grimaced to himself, annoyed that he'd forgotten Will's hawk like attention.

"Nothing at all Number One..." he trailed off and Riker gave him a look that said 'oh really!'

"... I just miss my old chair." he finally lamented. The Enterprise E was a relatively new ship, built to replace his beloved Enterprise D. He still regretted the events that led up to the destruction of that great ship. So many of his triumphs and failures had occurred on that ship. As an old friend would tell him, it was illogical to miss a machine, but miss the old ship he did. And more to the point, he missed the comfort of the Captain's chair that the Enterprise D offered.

Will chuckled quietly so as not to attract too much attention from the command crew going about their jobs, although he knew very well that Data would have heard him from his seat at Operations.

"Have you spoken to Geordi about it?" he asked.

With a sigh, Jean-Luc passed a hand wearily across his face and looked at the first officer. "Yes Will, many times. Geordi has replaced the chair a total of four times, each one replicated from the original design and my input. However, nothing seems to come close. It's either too soft or too hard, or like this one does, it digs into my back just in the wrong place."

Will smiled at his captain and friend, and looked across at his Imzadi over the bridge who was grinning at the conversation.

"Well Jean-Luc, this chair is absolutely fine for me." he teased. He was about to continue with his teasing when he was interrupted by a beep from the operations console. His attention snapped to the android who was rapidly assessing the information his scanners were giving him.

"Report Mr Data." Will ordered.

"Sensors have picked up a massive temporal and gravitational distortion directly within our path sir." the android reported.

"Distance?" the captain asked in a clipped efficient tone.

"Three light years, captain." Data replied. "and the disturbance is massive, affecting both subspace and real space simultaneously. I suggest we drop out of warp at a safe distance sir."

"Make it so Data."

With practised efficacy, Data dropped the massive ship out of warp and brought it to a sub light speed of three quarter impulse.

"Run full scans Data and find us a way around that thing. Bring us closer but stay within a safe distance."

"Aye sir." the android replied. Within minutes he had run all the scans and brought the Enterprise to twenty kilometres from the phenomenon.

"Sir, report complete, we are twenty point three kilometres from the centre of the disturbance. We are at a safe distance and sensors are not picking up any detrimental effects from the phenomenon on the ship." Data reported.

"On screen!" Picard ordered.

The front screen blinked into life and the crew gasped at what they saw. Floating in space, surrounded by a bright white glow was a massive rip in space. The edges glowed white but the rip itself was an inky black, with no stars showing at all.

"What are we looking at Data?" Picard asked.

"Unknown for certain sir, nothing similar has ever been seen before. It appears to be a rip in space, time, subspace and also seems to be multidimensional."

"Multidimensional?" Picard asked.

Data suddenly looked more animated than before and slightly turned to face his captain.

"Oh yes sir, it is actually quite fascinating sir. The rip appears to be present in more than one dimension at the same time. In fact, its seems to be almost pan-dimensional. According to Dr Hawking at the Jupiter institute of advanced..."

"Data, enough. Shall we just say its scientifically interesting and leave it at that shall we for the moment." Riker interrupted before Data could carry on.

Data cocked his head to one side and looked at Commander Riker with a curious expression. Ever since he had started to use the emotion chip, his mannerisms and speech were much more 'human' but when interrupted he would always adopt the same head movement.

"Off course sir, sorry sir." He apologised and turned back around to his console. Will threw an amused glance to the Captain who raised an eyebrow in return.

"Dangers?" Riker asked.

"At this distance, negligible, but I would advise against getting any closer sir. As well as massive amounts of Chronon particles that the rip is emitting, there is a very powerful gravitational field emitting from the rip sir. However instead of pulling, the gravity field is pushing away from the centre. Actually thinking about it getting any closer would be problematical at best." Data replied.

"How big is that thing Data? And what risk would it have on the Enterprise if we were to go around it?" the Captain asked.

"Readings show it to be just under a kilometre in length but the resulting effects are increasing in strength. We should start to feel the effects on the ship in under ten point three seconds, sir." Data replied.

Jean-Luc was about to order the Enterprise to reverse its course to a safer distance when the rip flared a brilliant golden white light, blinding the crew and causing the monitor to power down.

"Data! What's happening?" Picard ordered.

There was a few seconds whist the android consulted the readings. "Sir, the rip is gone but scans show that before it vanished the temporal and gravitational effects spiked massively and then something was ejected from the centre of the rip."

"Something, what something?" Riker asked.

"Scanning now sir" there was a pause as the android consulted his screens before he looked up and turned to face the Captain.

"It's a body sir! A humanoid body...no life signs, frozen solid and very old sir."

Picard stood from his chair and he rapidly thought about the options available. "Take us to transporter distance and have it beamed directly to sickbay, contact Dr Crusher and inform her about the body. I'll meet her down there. As soon as you've completed that take us back to warp and continue our course. Send all data to Starfleet. Number one you have the conn."

Jean -Luc swiftly turned and headed for the Turbo-lift. As he called it, he saw Riker move and sit in recently vacated chair. With a grin to Deanna he exclaimed, "Comfy chair sir!"

Picard grinned internally at the quip and the slight nervous laugh that rippled around the bridge crew. The bridge crew were a tight knit group and nothing was ever said, no matter how quietly that wasn't heard. Turning around to face his executive office, he didn't let his amusement show and he replied.

"Don't get too comfortable Commander!" and with a final glare he pulled down the bottom of his tunic and entered the empty Turbo-lift. The doors swiftly closed shut and he commanded it to take him to sick bay. Seconds later the doors opened and he exited the lift and walked towards the sick bay. As he walked he felt the sudden change in vibration on the deck plates as the massive ship re-entered warp and continued on its route. 'Warp five point one and the magnetic confinement beams are out by 12 microns.' He thought to himself, leaving a mental note to inform engineering when they got to Risa.

As he turned the corner to the sickbay, Picard wasn't surprised to see standing patiently outside the bay Lieutenant Commander Worf. It was standard Federation procedure to have a member of security present when a ship beamed aboard unknown Biological matter. Worf had suffered badly during the recent Dominion wars whilst serving on Deep Space Nine; the loss of his wife Jadzia Dax been the worst of those sufferings. Worf was not a permanent member of the Enterprise crew, indeed once they reached Risa, he intended to leave once more to return to Qo'noS.

Picard nodded to his friend and temporary head of security, the gesture returned by the gruff Klingon.

Entering sick bay, with the Klingon following him and taking up a station by the entrance; he was greeted by the sight of Dr Beverley Crusher attending to his chief Engineer. She had obviously finished the surgery to re-implant his optical implants after their removal whilst at the Ba'ku planet.

"Captain!" Geordi said to his Captain. Dr Crusher turned and smiled at her old friend.

"Jean-Luc, we received the body. I've began to defrost the body and placed it in quarantine. As soon as its defrosted it will be put in a stasis field. It will only be a minute or so before we have some answers." She explained to him warmly.

"Thank you Beverley, and Geordi, how are you doing?" he asked.

"Well Captain, Dr Crusher has managed to further improve the implants, the amount of discomfort I feel from them is almost nil now sir. I'm hoping to be back to duty soon." The last part was spoken as a question aimed at the chief medical officer stood in front of him holding a medical tricorder and aiming it at his eyes.

With a wry grin, Beverley shook her head. "Not yet you're not, I need to check that the implants are fully function. I need you here for at least another hour Geordi."

Picard smiled, "Doctors orders Geordi, no point in arguing. Heaven knows I've tried over the years and still have yet to win one."

Beverley glared at him, but with humour in her eyes. "You never will Jean-Luc."

Geordi La-Forge sighed and laid back on the bed with a resigned look on his face. Beverley finished her scan and nodded to him. "All looking good so far Geordi." With a final nod she moved to another section of the sick bay with the Captain and Worf following behind her. This was a more enclosed area that was more dimly lit. On the medical bed lay the figure that had been beamed recently aboard. Nurse Ogawa was stood by the control panel on the side of the bed.

"Alyssa, what have we got?" Beverley asked.

"The body is defrosted and apparently free from pathogens doctor. I've just started the preliminary scans." The Head nurse replied.

"Thank you, I'll take it from here." With a nod Ogawa moved back over to Geordi where the two started to chat.

Beverley cancelled the quarantine field whilst initiating the stasis field and studied the display showing the results of the scan. Whilst she studied the results, Picard moved to look at the body. It was that of a young beautiful woman with golden blonde hair. She was naked as she laid on the medical bed, her modesty covered by the arch of the scanner that covered the bed. She glowed slightly, a result of the stasis field that surrounded the body, but her features were clearly visible. She looked to be in her mid-twenties and other that her bluish tinge to her skin that all dead bodies exhibited and the bruises that covered her skin; a result of her exposure to the vacuum on space; he assumed, she looked un-injured. It was the look on her face that grabbed Picard's attention. Her eyes were still wide open, a look of terror and agony etched on them; and her mouth was wide in a final scream of pain. She had obviously died in pain, but why was a naked young woman floating in the vacuum of space in the first place? As he contemplated the figure in front of him he became aware of some agitation from the doctor. She was muttering to herself and Picard distinctly heard words such as "Impossible!" and "What?" coming from his old friend. Turning he refocused his attention of the doctor.

"Beverley, I'm sensing something is confusing you, care to explain?"

With a brush of her hair, Beverley Crusher looked up at the captain with confusion clearly showing on her face. "Where would you like me to begin?" she asked, exasperated.

"Well, what species is she, how did she die and how long ago would be good for starters." Picard replied with a small smile on his face.

"Well the answer to your first question is the confusing one, but she died from exposure to vacuum, extreme cold and suffocation. Weirdly she was naked when exposed to space and very alive when she got there. Death would have been quick but immensely painful, hence the expression on her face." She said sadly. No one who worked on a starship or in space in any capacity would underestimate the horror of such a death.

"She has been in space for nearly three thousand years according to the decay rate of the carbon we found in the defrosted water on her body." She said matter of factly.

Picard's head snapped up at this, she looked human, and to find a human woman floating in space, light-years from Earth was strange enough as it was; but to find that she had been there for thousands of years was impossible. Before he said anything, Beverley continued, raising her hand to stave off any comments from the confused captain.

"Yes, I know but Data did say the 'rip' she appeared from had a temporal component to it so that may explain that. However, it's her species that has me confused. She WAS human once, as far as I can tell. Her DNA shows all the normal markers for human; although there is a slight oddness to some of the markers and key elements of her atomic structure, but this is not the biggest confusion. Her DNA was Human, it's not now. She has the strangest DNA I've ever seen period. There are no obvious helix strands, everything is sort of fuzzy, as if the machine can't see the DNA properly. I've never seen anything like it before." She told the captain with a confused look on her face.

"What does it mean Dr Crusher?"

"I cannot say for certain, but I can tell you one thing. She's genetically perfect. She would have been very strong and very hard to kill. With DNA like that her regenerative properties would be like nothing we have ever seen before in a physical being. Who knows what else she was capable of."

Picard turned to look back at the dead woman and was about to speak when the ship violently lurched throwing them both of their feet as the inertial dampeners failed to compensate for the sudden change in direction the ship encountered. Picard could feel the ship been thrown violently out of warp and back into normal space, before once more been wrenched into another direction. Picard tried to hit his comm badge but before he could manage it the ship began to spin violently, the room flipping over, throwing all the people across the room. The Red-Alert alarm sounded briefly before the sound failed and the lights flickered on and off, panels exploded all over the room as the power fluctuated. With a massive explosion part of the ceiling fell down covering the entrance. Picard found himself flung across the room and with a sickening thump his head struck on one of the other Bio-beds. As he began to lose consciousness he was aware of a plasma fire starting in the room and the lights finally going out throwing the room into an eerie darkness, lit only by the glow of the plasma fire and the soft glow of the stasis field covering the body of the young girl. With his final seconds of conscious thought her was aware of the fizzle caused by the stasis field dying, leaving just the light from the fire; however soon even this faded as his awareness changed to a merciful blackness.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Nill Time - Prime Universe

The sentient time ship known as the TARDIS drifted lazily through the strange and weird place known as the Time Vortex. Her thief had not set any destination for her to follow and for once she had not sensed any place or time he needed to be. Truth be told she was slightly annoyed and more than a little worried about her beloved thief. She knew that he was worried about something and also that he desperately missed his pink and yellow 'human'; her Wolf. She was furious with him when he allowed her to leave with the part human version of himself. She tried to tell him time and time again that she was no longer human but he just wouldn't listen. In linear time that had been nearly one hundred years ago and in all that time they had only been to a few places. The latest had been to Mars in 2059 Earth Time, and that hadn't ended well for her thief. He was scared, scared of his actions, and more scared about the repercussions. The TARDIS peeked slightly ahead in his timeline, for she was a being of multiple dimensions and had all of Time and space running through her. She delighted to see his possible future, it was glorious and wonderful and finally they would be together, provided he didn't muck it up again. The TARDIS loved her Wolf, indeed she was more TARDIS than human now, they were almost sisters but for now she was content to drift and to let the Doctor mope around her rooms.

The Time Lord in question was once more exhausted. He couldn't remember the last time he had slept without waking in terror with the nightmares. Often they were about the Time War, or the Daleks - or indeed any number of enemies he had encountered in his long life. Recently they were about the events on Bowie Base One, and the 'Time Lord Victorious'. What an idiot he was, Victorious? He wasn't anything but. 'Time Lord Idiot', 'Time Lord total and utter prat' was more accurate. The look that Adelaide Brooks had had on her face haunted him. How had he fallen so low? Well that was obvious even to him. It was the loss he felt over her, Rose Tyler. The only woman he had truly ever loved, and he let her go! What a total and complete idiot he was, and a coward. No, most of the nightmares were of her, losing her over and over again. And so he walked with his head bowed for what felt like miles along the TARDIS corridors, sometimes crying, the tears hot on his cheeks; other times with dead eyes and a haunted look on his face. He could feel the TARDIS trying to comfort and communicate with him, but he tried to ignore it. He didn't deserve any comfort for what he had done.

He fevered walking finally brought him to a wooden door with a carved name on it, along with the emblem of a flower. It was her room, the only companions room that the TARDIS still maintained. Normally after a companion left, their room was archived, but not hers. Not Rose's room. With tears filling his eyes his fingers lightly traced the name written on it. It was written both in English and Gallifreyan. 'Rose' and 'Arkytior' he read. With a sob, he gently opened the door but didn't step inside the room. As he looked into the room he thought It was as if she had just stepped out, her bed unmade and clothes scattered on the floor as she rushed out. As he looked the smell of her assaulted his senses, that sweet flowery smell, a mixture of spring flowers and despite the cliché, roses. His eyes filled once more with tears and his memories of played across his mind. Her look, her smile, the way she poked her tongue through her teeth, or the way she bit her lip when she was worried. Rassilon, he loved her, he loved her more than he had thought possible. 'Did it need saying?' He regretted that coward's response on that beech more than anything! Off course it needed saying, over and over again. With tears streaming down his face he looked over her room once more.

Despite her brief journey in the TARDIS the last time; the time he sent her away again, she hadn't had time to visit her old room. It was as she left it the time they had encountered the ghosts, and the battle of Canary wharf - the second worst day of his life. Tears stinging his eyes he finally shut the door and was about to walk away when the TARDIS sent him an urgent mental call. Unlike her previous nudges, calm and gentle, this one was urgent and insistent. He got a vague image of a distress call, and despite his suffering and poor mental state, he was still the Doctor. People needed help and that's what he did, so he set off for the console room at a run.

-=##=-

Riker slowly opened his eyes and winced in pain as signals were been sent from all over his body to his brain. However, he couldn't allow himself the luxury of just lying on the floor of the bridge, in the near dark. People needed him and the ship needed him so with a groan he sat up to survey the scene presented in front of him. The bridge was illuminated only by the dim red emergency lights. All other sources of illumination, from the overhead lights to the main screen were out, every panel of the ship stations was black and smoke hung heavily in the air. He took a breath and realised that the life support systems must be on emergency battery backup as the air smelt stale and there was a slight tang of ozone mixed in it. The bridge crew were slowly coming around all except for Data who was laid rigid on the floor not far from him.

"Will? Will are you okay?" he heard Deanna cry faintly to him. He crawled over to his beloved and slowly checked her for injuries. She gasped in pain when he ran his hands down her sides and he realised that she had at least two broken ribs, but other than a nasty gash on her forehead that wept blood she seemed otherwise uninjured.

"What happened?" she asked, wincing in pain from the effort of talking with the broken ribs. Riker reached over to the cubbyhole near the side of the Captain's chair and pulled out the emergency medical pack. He fished around inside it and pulled out a medical tricorder. He ran it over her side and her face relaxed as the ribs knitted back together. Rather than try to fix the gash on the face, knowing that his field medical skill was limited at best; and he would leave a scar, he resorted to fixing an adhesive medical covering to her head, it disinfecting and numbing the wound at the same time.

"Not sure Deanna, whatever it was it took out every system on the ship, including Data." He replied indicating the prone android. He slowly stood and with care walked over to Data. Bending over he reached down and hit Data's reset switch. With a jerk the life returned to the android who blinked in surprise and quickly stood up.

"Commander?" he asked.

"Data, I need a full assessment of our condition, what works, what doesn't. Where we are and any further risk, and I need it as soon as possible."

"Aye sir." Data quickly moved to his station, whilst Riker and Deanna tended to the remaining bridge crew. Data tapped the surface of the operations console, but nothing happened. He bent down and ripped the bottom panel away and reached inside. Seconds later the power to his console flickered on and off a few times before remaining dimly on. He tapped a few commands and read the results. If he were human, he would have sighed and shook his head, but he wasn't so he absorbed the results stoically.

"Mr Data report." Riker asked, he had moved behind the android and was looking at the panel from over his shoulder.

"Sir, main power is down, all engines are non-functional. We are drifting slowly in space. Main life support is down other than battery backups, all intership and external communications are down although the emergency distress beacons have activated, Turbo-lifts are non-operational, shields, transporters and weapons are down. Artificial gravity is still functioning in ninety percent of the ship. I am unable to ascertain the condition of the crew but the ship is essentially intact, we have no hull breaches that I can scan sir. However, we do have a more pressing issue sir. The magnetic containment within the Warp Drive will fail in approximately thirty-five point six minutes. After that we will be looking at a Warp core breach." Data responded coolly.

Riker's blood ran cold at the news. "Main power in engineering?" he asked hopefully.

"Sorry sir, but that's out. Unless they can find a way to re-initialise the magnetic containment fields, this ship will explode in thirty-five point two minutes, and we have no way of contacting them."

Riker rarely swore, he prided himself on his control, but in these circumstances he felt slightly justified in his single word reply to the death sentence Data had just proclaimed.

"Shit!"

-=##=-

In sickbay it seemed that history was repeating itself as Picard groaned in a similar way as his first officer had done when consciousness returned to his body. He groaned ever more as the pain in his head made itself known. The sick bay was only illuminated by the light of the still burning plasma fire and the dim emergency lights. Picard tried to move only to find his progress impeded by a cold naked dead body lying across his legs. Despite his years of experience, he struggled to resist the reaction to flinch away from the body, despite his realisation that it was that of the young woman that they had beamed aboard before this happened. Before he could try to move further he felt the weight lifted from him and he saw Worf lie the dead woman from him and place her on the bio-bed from where she had fallen. Despite the facade of gruffness, the Klingon liked to portray he was surprisingly gentle with the woman as he carefully placed be down.

"Captain, are you uninjured?" he asked once he had relieved himself of his burden.

Picard slowly stood, wincing in pain as he did so. "I don't think so, apart from the mother of all headaches. How is everyone else?"

Dr Crusher, who was also just getting up from the floor, grabbed a medical tricorder and scanned the captains head. "Mild concussion Jean-Luc, when I find it, I can give you a shot for the pain. However, it seems my sick bay just got turned upside down so it may take me some time to find the hypo. As to the condition of everyone in this room, I will need a few minutes to check." She left to check the few occupants of the room, picking Nurse Ogawa from the floor where she had fallen. The nurse nodded her thanks and they both checked on Geordi. The sick bay had been almost empty when Picard had first arrived due to the ship not been on an official mission.

Picard tapped his comm badge, but nothing happened. He looked over at Worf and they both moved to one of the panels to try to activate it but with no success.

"Main power must be out, and by the smell of the air, so is life support. Fire suppression is also not working." Worf mused looking at the small plasma fire that still burnt near fallen ceiling struts that covered the main entrance.

"We will need to tackle that plasma fire before it consumes what oxygen we do have Commander." Picard told him. They both found plasma extinguishers and quickly brought the blaze under control.

"Any chance you can move this strut; we need to get to the bridge." Picard asked the Klingon.

Worf glanced at the strut, trying to gauge its weight. With a grunt he tried to lift it, but even with the Klingon's great strength, it wouldn't budge.

Dr Crusher moved to join them followed by Geordi.

"Apart from Dr Barrett who has broken his leg when he fell, everyone here is fine. Alyssa is treating him as we speak. We need to get out of here as there will be people injured all over the ship, assuming there is much left of the ship. What the hell happened Jean-Luc?"

"Beverley, I'm sure that other medical personnel are helping people already." The Sovereign class starship as well as having the main sick-bay also had three other sick-bays. One more in the main saucer section and two located in the main hull. As well as that there were small medical stations dotted all over the ship.

"As to what happened, I can only guess; something ripped us out of warp. I can't feel any engines so we must be drifting. Main power is down so therefore I can only hope that the magnetic containment fields are still in place within the warp drive otherwise the medical issues are going to become a moot point. I need to somehow get to the bridge, but as you can see getting out of here is not going to be easy."

"And I need to get to main engineering urgently, if we are looking at a warp core breach then we need to eject the core as soon as possible. With no engines even if we eject, there's no guarantee we can drift far enough away not to be caught in the explosion." Geordi interjected.

Before anything further could be said, the three of them were distracted by the sight on the dead body of the woman on the bio-bed. What was distracting them was the woman was glowing an eerie golden glow. Before Beverley could scan the body they were all startled by the woman emitting as strangled gasp and with a cry she sat bolt upright, her eyes reflecting pain, anger and total confusion. She looked around her mouth moving but no sounds coming from it. She turned to see the four federation officers looking at her in complete astonishment. With a cry she jumped down from the bed and grabbed a piece of metal piping that was on the floor; debris from the recent problems. With a snarl she brandished the makeshift weapon and with an odd accent addressed them.

"Where the fuck am I? Who the Fuck are you? And what the fucking hell is going on?"

Worf sensing the threat she posed went into typical Klingon security office mode and drew his side arm. Aiming at the woman he fired a stun shot at her. However, with reflexes that no human nor Klingon could match she ducked out the way, the blast harmless impacting the wall behind her. With a further snarl she hurled the pipe with pin point accuracy at the Klingon. It hit him on the arm just above his hand and with a snap of broken bones and a roar of pain he dropped the phaser. The woman wasn't finished yet however. With a spectacular somersault she leapt over the bio-bed to land in front of Worf, ignoring the sharp shrapnel on the floor as it cut deeply into her feet. With a spin she aimed a roundhouse kick to his chest, covering the front of his uniform in her blood and sending him flying across the room. As she finished her spin, her hand picked up the fallen phaser and she aimed it at the remaining amazed officers. She had moved so fast that she seemed to almost blur and no normal human had the strength to even knock over a Klingon, never mind send him flying across the room.

With a roar of rage, Worf stood and was all set to charge the woman when Picard finally managed to get his brain into gear.

"MR WORF, STAND DOWN NOW!" he yelled at the top of his voice, startling not only the enraged security officer but also the woman who flinched but did not lower the weapon. The Klingon stopped his charge and managed to look contritely at his captain. Picard turned to the woman and raised his hand slightly in surrender. He was dimly aware of Nurse Ogawa now treating the broken bones of Worf's wrist as he spoke to the naked woman stood in front of him.

"You are safe; no one here is going to hurt you." He told the woman in a calm and warm voice.

"Who are you?" she asked, the phaser not lowering even a millimetre.

"My name is Captain Jean-Luc Picard; you are aboard the Star-ship Enterprise. We found you and took you on board."

"Found me? Found me where? Where are we?" she asked, in an English accent.

"Miss, I know it may be hard for you to believe but we found you drifting in space, you were frozen solid, we thought you were dead. As to where we are, well on that I'm not too sure, as you may tell from the state of the room, you are not seeing us at our best." He replied to her.

The woman did not look as shocked as he would have expected her to at the news that she had been found in space. In fact, she looked rather resigned to the fact.

"Fucking hell, even been atomised can't kill me it seems." She muttered to herself. However as soon as she finished something must have struck her because she paled and with a gasp yelled. "The Earth, oh fucking hell the Earth is gone!"

"Miss, I can assure you that the Earth is fine, some of us are from Earth." He told her. She looked at him closely before asking a question he wasn't expecting.

"What year is it?"

"Err, in the standard Earth calendar its 2375 miss."

"Impossible, I know for a fact that the Earth was blown up in 2345! I the one who fucking ordered it to happen. I was there when it blew up...wait... you're from Earth?"

Jean-Luc was getting very confused; they woman wasn't making much sense.

"Yes miss, I'm from Earth. From France if you must know. May we know your name?"

"Earth, France?" she suddenly looked excited, "Must be a different universe." She muttered to herself "Tell me have you heard of Daleks, Cybermen, Slitheen?" she asked the captain.

Picard looked at her in confusion, the worrying thought that she might be mentally impaired struck him.

"Sorry miss but those words don't mean anything to me." He told her gently. He wasn't prepared for the look of total disappointment that crossed her face, nor the look of sadness that soon followed it.

"So different universe but not the right one" she muttered before looking directly at him. "I am Brigadier Rose Tyler, Commander in Chief of Earth Torchwood forces and I need your help."

Torchwood? Thought Picard, he'd never heard of it but somehow the words the woman had been muttering slowly made some kind of sense to him. Data had said that the rip was multidimensional, the theory of alternative universes had been around for decades, indeed Worf had reported something similar happening to him a few years ago so he was inclined to believe the theory.

"Brigadier Tyler, can I assume that you are from an alternative universe, one where the Earth has been destroyed?" he asked her. His colleagues looked at him in confusion, except for Worf who was nodding his head. In fact, Worf was looking at the strange naked women with an odd look on his face, something akin to awe.

With a sad look that passed her face, a brief expression of loss that soon faded into an expressionless facade she nodded. "Call me Commander, I only use the Brigadier title when I have to." Picard nodded his assent to her.

"It seems that we have a lot to talk about Commander, but for the moment we have a more extreme problem." He told her indicating the darkness and the mess surrounding them.

"What's the problem Captain?" she asked efficiently.

"My ship is dead in space, we have little power and there is a large chance that if may explode in a few moments unless we can get out of here soon and stop it." He said, indicating the massive ceiling strut blocking the exit.

"Well let's get that sorted then!" she mentioned and began to move.

Picard raised an eyebrow and coughed in a slightly embarrassed way.

"Commander, before that you may wish to...err change." He told her, a slight blush filling his face. Rose looked oddly at him, confusion plain to see on her face. Picard gestured to her naked body and looked into her eyes.

Rose looked down and seemingly noticed her nakedness for the first time. With a gasp she dropped the phaser and in the most human thing she had done since she had 'awoken' she tried to cover herself with her hands, her face now a beaming red colour.

Dr Crusher had been silent all this time, her medical tricorder taking readings as the captain spoke to the woman. As soon as she became aware of her state of dress and the embarrassment clearly visible, she once more took charge. Whilst nakedness not been a massive taboo in the 24th century, still the woman had rights.

"Gentlemen, if you could give us a moment please" she told them. Now both the captain and Geordi were blushing and quickly turned their backs. Worf's blush was more difficult to tell, but he also turned around but still was able to keep an eye of the scene behind him to make sure that no further threat was occurring.

Beverley put down the tricorder and slowly walked over to the blushing woman. Rose looked at her in fear, none of the previous aggression now showing.

"My dear, let's go and get you some clothes. Normally we'd replicate you some, but with the power down its going to be emergency medical field cloths but they will keep you warm."

As she spoke she had pulled out a small plastic container, pulling out a pair of trousers and a top, she handed them to the woman.

"Sorry, no underwear at the moment but it's better than nothing."

Rose swiftly pulled on the clothes, grimacing a little at the lack of bra, despite her slender frame she was a little larger than average in the bust department but as the red haired doctor had said it was better than nothing.

"Now let's see to those cuts on your feet my dear." The doctor told her.

"No need, healed already." Rose replied, lifting her feet up one by one to show the Doctor. Indeed, there wasn't a mark on either of them.

"But I could do with some shoes if you have any, even if they heal, it still hurts to cut them."

Dr Crusher lifted her eyebrows in surprise but after looking in the plastic container, handed over an odd pair of shoes to her. "Medical slippers are the best I've got Commander, they will fit any size and are comfortable I'm told."

Rose quickly slipped on the shoes and stood once more, now clothed in loose fitting clothing that resembled the medical scrubs she remembered from her youth. Dr Crusher had once more picked up the tricorder and was studying the results of the scans. Rose raised an eyebrow at the doctor and coughed slightly.

"Oh sorry Commander, that's very rude of me. It's just that you have such an amazing physiology. I've never seen the like. Where are you from?"

"Earth, London to be exact, but it's a long story. Hopefully we will have time to discuss it but I guess we had better stop your ship from exploding and killing all of you, hadn't we?" Dr Crusher nodded and placed the tricorder back into her belt, she did notice that the Commander said 'killing all of you' and not 'all of us'. She had deliberately excluded herself from her description, was this woman really able to withstand the destruction of the starship? Before she had time to contemplate what this meant, Rose had moved away.

Rose bent down and retrieved the phaser causing Worf and the other males to turn back around. She smiled at the large Klingon, her tongue showing slightly through her teeth. With a causal throw she tossed the phaser back to the security officer who caught it with a slight smack.

"Come on then big fella, let's get out of here." She grinned at him, the smile making her whole face come alive and making her look a lot younger. She walked over the metal strut covering the entrance and took hold of one end.

"You get one end and I'll get the other, we'll have this moved in a jiffy." She told the startled Klingon.

"Commander, that would be impossible, I've tried to lift this on my own and even with the strength of another Klingon it would be difficult. I fail to see what a small human woman could do to aide me in this." He growled.

Rose raised an eyebrow at him. "So you're a Klingon are you? Rude and not ginger? You remind me slightly of an old friend. You seem to forget, this small human just kicked your Klingon arse across this room not five minutes ago, so once again let's get this thing moved." She told him with a small degree of amusement.

"Impossible, I am a Klingon warrior and you cannot possible be strong enough to help." He snarled.

"Yeah? Well I'm the Big Bad Wolf, so get to it Klingon." She snapped back, her eyes glowing a strange golden glow. As if to emphasise her point he bent down and swiftly picked up her end of the strut with barely any effort visible. Worf gaped at her in astonishment before with a loud grunt he also managed to lift his end of the metal strut. It was obvious to all watching who was struggling the most and it wasn't the small human woman. With some shuffling and grunting they both managed to move the strut enough that the door was accessible. With a roar, Worf dropped the strut and began to pant. Rose walked over to him, no obvious sign of the effort that Worf was showing, and patted his cheek with her hand and grinned at him.

"Thanks big fella, you almost helped." She told him.

Now that the door was accessible Picard moved forward. He had watched the interaction between the woman and his security chief both with a sense of amusement at her obvious teasing; but also with a sense of awe with the ease at which such a slender looking woman had moved the strut. As he walked forward he smiled a thank you to the Commander and tried not to grin at the look of utter confusion on Worf's face. Stepping up to the doors he was unsurprised that they didn't automatically open. Popping open the access panel he pulled down the emergency manual release and both he and Geordi slid the two doors open to expose the dark corridor behind them. Grabbing a torch and a phaser from the emergency panel near the door, he tossed another set to Geordi.

"Mr La-Forge, you go to Engineering; take Mr Worf with you. Your priority is to stabilise the Warp core and get power back on line. Myself and Dr Crusher will head to the bridge." He ordered.

Geordi and Worf nodded and left the room to carry out his orders.

Rose looked up at this and scowled. "Whoa their flyboy, you are not leaving me here. I'm sticking with you Captain; you may need my help."

"Commander Tyler..." he began, slightly annoyed that she'd called him 'flyboy'

"Rose, my name is Rose." She snapped back at him.

He nodded his head and continued. "Rose then. You are a civilian and to be totally honest an unknown security risk. You will stay here until we can sort this mess out."

Rose bristled in anger, "First of all, I am not a civilian, I am the Commander in Chief of the planet wide security and research organisation known as Torchwood. I am over three hundred and fifty years old, I outrank you in any way you can imagine and finally if I am such a massive security risk; wouldn't you be better keeping an eye on me rather than leaving me alone here?" she asked.

Picard looked at her in surprise. He had known intellectually that she was not a normal human but to hear her say so blatantly how old she was surprised him. She also had a point, she did outrank him in any other environment. However, on a starship the captain was ultimately responsible for everything that happened on his ship, even actions that occurred due to orders from those higher up in the rankings than he was. But she was also right about keeping an eye of her. With a slow nod he accepted that fact

"Well then Rose, you better come along."

"With pleasure Jean-Luc!" she cheekily replied. "Come on then boys...Allons-y!" she grinned, winking at the smiling Dr Crusher, as she plucked another torch from the cabinet and switched it on.


End file.
